


Sleeping Soundly, Sleeping Loudly

by ForgingOurDestiny



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Established Relationship, F/M, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Merlin is a sleeper agent for a magic group
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27837385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgingOurDestiny/pseuds/ForgingOurDestiny
Summary: It was their annual game night when Merlin got the call. Time to wake up, time to work.~*~Merlin gets a call, Arthur starts stressing, and the Magic Users Union (MUU) is making a statement.
Relationships: Gwen/Lancelot (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 56





	Sleeping Soundly, Sleeping Loudly

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been swimming around in my mind for some time, and I finally got myself to finish it. I have a longer fic with a similar idea that will be coming out at some point, and it will explore a world similar to this in more depth. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!

It was their annual game night, this time round Merlin and Arthur’s. They were playing Monopoly after Uno had gotten too heated and after, because apparently they hated themselves, they were going to attempt to play Poker (attempt, because Gwaine was the only on that knew how to really play, and he was already pissed as a fart).

They were playing in teams; Merlin and Arthur, Gwaine and Percy, Leon and Morgana, Gwen and Lance, and Elyan and Mordred. Arthur honestly had no idea why they kept playing this game, by the third go it was clear that Leon and Morgana were going to win. Morgana was cunning and willing to use underhand tactics and Leon, with his business degree and experience in investment banking, handled their properties and which ones they wanted to buy. It always led to arguments, but it seemed to be a tradition whenever he and Merlin hosted, born from the time they learned Merlin had never played before and so decided to ‘educate him’ on how to play the game (read ‘educate him’ as: attempt to take advantage of his ignorance and instead get completely whipped, purely by accident on Merlin’s account).

Elyan and Mordred were currently bickering on whether to trade with Gwaine and Percival or not when their home phone rang. Arthur went to stand to go and answer it, but Merlin’s head popped out of the kitchen and he waved Arthur away as he went to answer it. Arthur watched Merlin’s smile drop from his face; his husband had looked so young before, almost like he had when they’d met in Uni, but now, wearing an uncharacteristic frown, Arthur could see how the years had affected him. Merlin had crows-feet around his eyes, making them look softer, and his smile lines around his mouth were so defined it looked weird to see him not smiling. His cheekbones were still so defined and the five o’clock shadow he so often favoured only made them more prominent, but it also made him look mature, like he had his shit together (which wasn’t remotely true, but Arthur was just as unprepared so who was he to talk?).

Merlin went from frowning to downright scowling, and Arthur decided that it was time to see what was going on. He excused himself, although no one paid him any mind as Elyan and Mordred were still arguing fiercely and went over to his husband. Merlin saw him coming and turned away, ending the conversation in low tones before Arthur managed to reach him. He replaced the phone and turned to Arthur as he arrived in front of him, leaning back on the wall. 

“What was that about, love?”, Arthur asked as soon as he reached Merlin. Despite the smile being back on his face, Arthur couldn’t help but be concerned; the last time he had looked so ticked off was when he had to go to Christmas dinner at Arthur’s father’s house (even Arthur, Morgana, and Leon hadn’t been able to make him smile, although the veiled homophobic comments being thrown at the two of them the whole time hadn’t been much fun for Arthur either)

“It’s nothing, just a setback in my research. I’d been hoping we’d make some advances soon, but it seems we’re still crawling along at a snail’s pace.”, Merlin answered, and now that Arthur had some context, he could see the frustration in his face. “Come on, lets go back, we still have Monopoly to win!” The eyebrow wiggle accompanying the statement made Arthur exhale a puff of laughter, and he let Merlin grab his hand and drag him back. 

“You know we’re not going to win.” 

“A man can dream, can’t he?” 

That little smile was all Arthur needed.

~*~

Since the call Merlin received on their game night, Arthur had noticed he’d been spending a lot more time in the garage (Merlin’s lab mostly, although Arthur refused to relinquish all control). Merlin seemed not to sleep anymore and, at first, Arthur had assumed he was just doing some more research to make up for the setbacks he had suffered in his research, but one night he heard banging and crashing and when he went to take a peek of what his husband was devoting his time to, he was ushered out immediately while Merlin spouted some nonsense about “classified” and “get out” and “how many times dollophead, this project is not for your arrogant face!”

Once he’d come out of his little work-induced frenzy, Arthur’s feral husband took the time to explain that he’d been asked to work on something too secret for Arthur to even think about. Too late, Merlin seemed to realise his mistake by peaking Arthur’s curiosity and tried to distract him by sitting down to watch TV together. Arthur, who had (for some reason) missed his maniac spouse, decided that they could do with a different distraction. It wasn’t the night Merlin had expected, but he couldn’t say he was mad about it.

~*~

Arthur was on duty when the news came in. There had been an attack in the citadel; a bomb had gone off and, out of the smoke, came a dragon made of golden sparks. It flew around the train station, lighting up the chaos. Despite it’s almost holographic appearance the dragon flew around the carnage, pulling the injured out of the rubble and depositing them next to the assembling paramedics. After maybe twenty minutes the dragon exploded into sparks; the sparks descended onto the floor, leaving a message that no one could get rid of. They had had to wait for it to naturally expire, which had left the politicians in a tight spot when they tried to say they had it handled. The MUU (Magic Users Union) had come forward after the attack claiming responsibility but everyone knew it was unnecessary, only members of the MUU had the magical capacity and confidence to stage such an attack.

On further investigation the statement left after the dragon exploded proved to be true. “We are stronger than you know, more powerful than you can comprehend, and we are through with being hunted down and killed like rats. We are making our stand. No one was killed this time; we value human life far more than you ever could. We have been preparing for this war for years, and now we’re bringing it to your doorstep.” When all the rubble had cleared, no bodies had been found – it seemed that the dragon had left no injured people in the carnage following the initial explosion.

They interviewed any who had been in the station at the time but no one had seen anything unusual. From victim’s statements, the police were able to piece together that the device used had been dropped in a bin near the middle of the station. It was hard for them to glean much more as they lacked any knowledge on magic to be able investigate and the resources needed to track or identify a suspect.

Arthur’s team had been put on standby in case the local police needed support, but they were far enough out of the way that they were a last resort. To be honest, Arthur wasn’t focused on this in the slightest. The train station that had been attacked had been the one Merlin went through every morning on his way to work, and the attack had happened around the time Merlin’s train normally arrived: the fact that he had heard nothing from his husband since he left that morning wasn’t really helping matters. His colleagues knew to give him space and when Merlin finally called Arthur went ballistic.

They had never heard Arthur shout like that, never seen him so off kilter. They were so used to seeing him as their fearless, composed leader that seeing him in the verge of an emotional breakdown shattered the image they had of him. When Arthur started quietly weeping, they decided to leave him be… they’d be there when he needed them, but for now he had his husband on the other end of the line.

~*~

Arthur had prohibited Merlin from going to work for a week after the attack at the train station. They both took the week off, and Arthur insisted Merlin change his commute to work: he couldn’t put himself through the horror of not knowing if his husband was dead or not ever again. 

The attacks continued and, while people still got hurt, no one was ever killed. Arthur felt like he should care, but all he could think was that he was glad Merlin was safe.

~*~

When Merlin had gotten the phone call he had been taken by surprise. For whatever reason, he had expected to have more time. He spent hours (Days? He couldn’t properly remember) slaving away over the device and, frankly, he was rather proud of how it turned out. It had ended up small, which was perfect, and he’d managed to disguise it as a mobile phone, which would be useful if someone stopped him.

When the day came, Merlin bought The Times from the train station. He read it on the train, why should he waste a newspaper? When he was getting off, he put the device in the newspaper and, once he’d gotten off of the platform, he dropped it in the bin and kept walking. He got to work on time, exchanged words with the receptionist Freya, and settled down into his work.

The alert came half an hour later, and he only found out because Freya rushed in to tell him. He left his station and joined her in the lobby, where TV was showing live footage of the bombing. He could see Freya shaking and couldn’t help but feel a bit of guilt over the fact that he’d unsettled her so much, but he knew what he did was important; he knew it mattered.

Eventually he went back to his station, and his phone had almost vibrated itself off of the table. He had nearly twenty missed calls from Arthur, and the guilt flickered back to life. Yes, he had been sent here, but he did love Arthur and causing him to worry unnecessarily felt incredibly cruel. When he answered, Arthur nearly deafened him with how loud he was shouting, but Merlin could hear the relief in his voice.

He got home, and Arthur latched on to him, refusing to let go. They stayed like that, curled around each other for hours. Merlin relished it, this easy affection, which he had been so sorely missing with how hard he was working.

That night, Merlin finally felt himself relax. He had done his job, he had finished. As he was drifting off, he realised he could go back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I haven't had a lot of time to write recently as college is hell at the minute. Comments feed my bitch of a muse, and hopefully I'll post something soon and not leave of gap of something like six months before posting again.  
> TTFN, ta ta for now!


End file.
